NPR chief Michael Oreskes has been placed on leave while the company investigates claims by two women who said he sexually harassed them nearly two decades ago when he was working for The New York Times, The Washington Post reports.
Oreskes, 63, reportedly French-kissed the women during conversations about job prospects when he was the Washington bureau chief for the Times. The incidents both occurred in the late 1990s and in cars.
"When I first went to see him, it was after screwing up my nerve to try to be bold and maneuver myself into a better job, and after what happened with him, I never really tried that again," one woman told the Post.
The other woman said: "The worst part of my whole encounter with Oreskes wasn't the weird offers of room service lunch or the tongue kiss, but the fact that he utterly destroyed my ambition."
Both women say they came forward now because of NPR's coverage of other sexual harassment episodes, including the bombshell allegations of film producer Harvey Weinstein.
"The idea that he's in charge of that coverage is just so hypocritical to me," one woman said. "It's sickening. I want to say: ‘You owe me . . . a public apology. You should recuse yourself" from NPR's coverage.
NPR said in a statement Tuesday: "We take these kinds of allegations very seriously. If a concern is raised, we review the matter promptly and take appropriate steps as warranted to assure a safe, comfortable, and productive work environment. As a matter of policy, we do not comment about personnel matters."
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